Magdalena Grono

Professional Background

Magdalena Grono has worked on conflict and transition issues in the former Soviet space since 1999, with a special focus on the Caucasus region where she also lived for nearly a decade. Before joining Crisis Group as Europe and Central Asia Program Director, Magdalena worked with the European Commission where she advised former Commissioner for Enlargement and the European Neighbourhood Policy on Eastern partnership countries; and led, together with UN and OSCE colleagues, the Working Group II on Humanitarian Issues of the Geneva International Discussions.

Prior to that, Magdalena worked on conflict, inter-ethnic and reform issues with the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, the OSCE, the High Commissioner on National Minorities and various international NGOs including Conciliation Resources, Freedom House, International Centre for Transitional Justice, and International Alert. She also served as Crisis Group's Caucasus Project Director between 2007-2008.

In The News

12 Apr 2017

The chances for the potential escalation [of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] are very high. And the conflict will be more deadly this time, since both sides know each other’s capabilities
Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Latest Updates

This week’s meeting between Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers is likely to centre on security issues, including numbers of international observers in Nagorno-Karabakh. But frustration with the peace process will grow unless both foreign ministers address the critical political aspects of a future settlement.

The front lines between the Ukrainian army and Moscow-backed forces in eastern Ukraine may be static but see frequent and violent firefights. Diplomatic manoeuvering over new U.S. lethal weapons for Kyiv risks aggravating the conflict and Russia’s UN peacekeeping proposal could prove a distraction from a genuine solution.

One year after Nagorno-Karabakh’s violent flare-up in April 2016, the danger of even more perilous fighting remains real. Further hostilities risk a larger regional conflagration with far-reaching humanitarian consequences. Crisis Group’s Europe and Central Asia Program Director, Magdalena Grono, assesses risks in the region.

Renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine is quickly turning into a litmus test of Russia’s intentions in backing Ukrainian separatist rebels, and the real willingness of the West, in particular the United States, to support Kyiv. Fears over Washington’s wavering may also cause positions to harden in the protracted conflicts in Europe’s East, most immediately in Georgia.

Unresolved conflicts and breakaway territories divide five out of six of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership countries, most of them directly backed by the Russian Federation. But a policy of isolating the people living in these conflict regions narrows the road to peace.